Evansdale Man Arrested for Meth Lab Following Fire

EVANSDALE, Iowa - An Evansdale man who had been living at a home that caught fire last month has been arrested on drug charges.

Deputies with the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office arrested Ronald Vincent Ostdahl, 57, on Friday for manufacturing methamphetamine. Bond was set at $75,000.

According to court records, Ostdahl had been living in the upstairs sections of another person's home at 454 Grand Ave. where a fire broke out about 8 p.m. Sept. 13. Ostdahl ran downstairs to alert others in the house about the fire and then disappeared.

The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, according to Evansdale officials.

Officers with the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force came to the home on Sept. 19 and found a number of items used to make meth with the one-pot method, including fertilizer stakes, sulfuric acid, pseudophedrine and bottles of sludge, according to court records.